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Analog: relating to or using signals or information represented by a continuously variable physical quantity such as spatial position or voltage.Besides, analog computers are the future. Our brains are analog.
Printed pages are also analog...
One of the greatest science fiction stories - The Last Question by Asimov - features the concept of an analog computer that assumes the greatest role in the universe.Besides, the title goes back quite a ways - I believe it was around before digital electronics as we know them even existed. In the golden era of science fiction, folks were using still using slide rules (an analog instrument) to do most of the heavy lifting for math.
And Martin makes an interesting point. There was a fellow in Santa Fe some time back who was using analog circuitry to make artificial critters, which demonstrated the superiority of analog systems for things like complex motion. Getting a robot to walk with an analog system may in fact be far more efficient than digitally assembling such motion.
Analog is cooler than you might think. :)
Jim wrote: "Audiophiles swear by it."omg yes! The harmonic distortion from tube amps and vinyl adds a quality to sound that cannot be duplicated any other way.
Michael wrote: "Analog is cooler than you might think. :) ..."
I trained as an engineer using an analog computer. It used to hang from my belt. We called it a slide rule. I still have one around here someplace, for old time sake. I can't believe I used to be able to take exponentials, square roots, logarithms, sines & cosines with it.
Give me a digital calculator app any day.
I trained as an engineer using an analog computer. It used to hang from my belt. We called it a slide rule. I still have one around here someplace, for old time sake. I can't believe I used to be able to take exponentials, square roots, logarithms, sines & cosines with it.
Give me a digital calculator app any day.
LOL! I still have a slide rule, too. A few months ago showed one (& the little manual that came with it) to my baby girl & her husband. They were born in 1989 & flabbergasted at the complex thing that delivered 3 digit accuracy. Josh looked through the manual & was shocked at all the functions it could do, although I couldn't remember how to do more than multiply & divide on it any more. I had to learn to use it for my first physics class, but had to buy a calculator when I took advanced physics a few years later.
G33z3r wrote: "Michael wrote: "Analog is cooler than you might think. :) ..."I trained as an engineer using an analog computer. It used to hang from my belt. We called it a slide rule. I still have one around h..."
I never actually used one in "real life" but they were still training us in the operation of a slide rule in my high school science classes. I still remember that giant slide rule that used to hang on the front wall of my chemistry class.
I had a nice circular slide rule, table of the elements on back, and a slide-out card with all kinds of lookup type stuff for math and physics. All in a protective sleeve that fit in a shirt pocket. Found it:http://holyjoe.org/hp/600-st.htm
That looks really handy. There used to be a lot of nifty cards & converters like that. I had one for calculating board feet & used to make one for changing recipes. I always thought they were cool, but rarely had them around when I actually needed them.
As a retired mathematics instructor, slide rules have always fascinated me. I have a collection of maybe ten or so including two I actually used in live fire exercises in college. I've also branched out a bit by picking up a pilots circular slide rule at an antique shop a couple years ago.
Bill wrote: "I've also branched out a bit by picking up a pilots circular slide rule at an antique shop a couple years ago. ..."
Oh, dear,... an antique? I was about to say that's one slide rule I still have in my flight bag, under the theory that the battery never dies. Though given modern avionics in even small private planes, it's hardly necessary unless I take up flying antiques. If the power goes out on the GPS, I'll have more pressing issues than calculating density altitude.
I dug out my old Pickett 120 yesterday, a cheap plastic slide rule that was my first; was surprised I could still do some calculations with it, more by muscle memory than intellect. :)
Oh, dear,... an antique? I was about to say that's one slide rule I still have in my flight bag, under the theory that the battery never dies. Though given modern avionics in even small private planes, it's hardly necessary unless I take up flying antiques. If the power goes out on the GPS, I'll have more pressing issues than calculating density altitude.
I dug out my old Pickett 120 yesterday, a cheap plastic slide rule that was my first; was surprised I could still do some calculations with it, more by muscle memory than intellect. :)
I think if I was a pilot, I would be a "belt and suspenders" type of guy too. And as for the ubiquitous electronic calculators, you should hear my rant about how they have become a crutch rather than a tool for students. The lack of basic arithmetic skills in undergraduates has made it much more difficult for them to learn algebra and anything beyond.
I haven't flown a real airplane since the advent of Garmin et. al., and I still have my original Jeppesen student kit with the cardboard circular flight computer. I've done a lot of sim flying with the modern GPS equipment and it really is amazing. But, while the notion of a 744 with a glass cockpit makes sense, I'm not too keen on flying a 172 with one. I guess they probably have backup batteries and all that, but these days the only steam gauges are down by your foot and all the electrical power comes from one engine. I really would prefer to have stuff driven by a Venturi tubes and bellows in that situation.
Bill wrote: "...And as for the ubiquitous electronic calculators, you should hear my rant about how they have become a crutch rather than a tool for students. The lack of basic arithmetic skills"Period. Not just undergraduates. Watching someone count change any more is just painful. Figure 5% sales tax in their head? Forget about it! It's crazy. We need to be able to estimate & do at least simple math in our heads, but it seems to be - not a lost art - but something trained out for some unknown reason.
When my youngest boy was in first grade (about 1990) they gave him a calculator. The second time he came home with it, the calculator went back to school in pieces in a baggie. In 5th grade, he was the only one who could complete a test of simple math questions in the requisite amount of time. His class mates had trouble counting money!
My oldest boy had to have a graphing calculator when he took trig or maybe Algebra II so they could figure out which way parabolas & such sat on a graph. We worked on estimating & he never needed it for that. He went on to reprogram half the memory into a database for exact dates so he could cheat on a history test. I was proud of him.
I don't know what they're thinking these days. I had to teach fractions to a 10th grader who wanted to work with wood. I just don't get it. Not a stupid kid, but he had trouble with a tape measure.
Students don't know the basic arithmetic facts—at least they don't know them instinctively. I encountered students who did not know their multiplication tables and were trying to learn algebra. Sure, their calculators could multiply the numbers, but to factor a polynomial, you have to UN-multiply numbers. Without facile computational skills, students struggle in algebra.Without algebra, the basic language of science as well as higher mathematics, they are shut off from any academic majors with a mathematics requirement—roughly three out of every four. Mathematics is a critical filter keeping students out of the STEM areas. It all goes back to learning the basic vocabulary of numbers.
Again, I have nothing against calculators. They are powerful tools and give students added insights. However, they are currently used as a crutch, and students are not learning to computationally "walk" on their own.
If I remember right, Asimov did a short story about this where a group of academicians looked on in astonishment as a colleague demonstrated the skill of doing computations by hand.
Bill wrote: "If I remember right, Asimov did a short story about this where a group of academicians looked on in astonishment as a colleague demonstrated the skill of doing computations by hand. ..."
"Feeling of Power". It's in his Nine Tomorrows collection, among others. They call the new science of using just paper & pencil "graphitics". "Computing without a computer is a contradiction in terms!"
"Feeling of Power". It's in his Nine Tomorrows collection, among others. They call the new science of using just paper & pencil "graphitics". "Computing without a computer is a contradiction in terms!"
Thank you for the title. It's been a long time since I've read it, but the memory stayed with me. The first time I read it, the idea that people could lose their computational skills to that point seemed laughable. Not so any more.Everyone has a jim-dandy, built-in organic computer that sits between their ears. The only charging it ever needs comes with the added advantage of gustatory pleasure. Many people are working very hard to be able to electronically mimic even a little of its capacity for flexible self-programming. However, use it, or lose it.
— A Cranky Old Math Instructor
Bill wrote: "Thank you for the title. It's been a long time since I've read it, but the memory stayed with me. The first time I read it, the idea that people could lose their computational skills to that point seemed laughable. Not so any more. ..."
Given it was written in 1958, it's amazingly farsighted. Computers then occupied rooms the size of houses, coddled by air conditioning and air filters and attended to by a bevy of acolytes. There wasn't even remote access/timesharing.
I was one of the last classes to study engineering without calculators. Sometime in my later college years HP introduced a scientific calculator (I want to call it the HP-45, but these days that seems to be an ink cartridge). It was expensive (~$400, if I recall – in 1970 dollars), so they weren't permitted on exams. But to hold one felt... incredible. Exponents, factorials, trig & log & ln, polar coords, in your pocket.
But that was a dozen years after "Feeling of Power".
Given it was written in 1958, it's amazingly farsighted. Computers then occupied rooms the size of houses, coddled by air conditioning and air filters and attended to by a bevy of acolytes. There wasn't even remote access/timesharing.
I was one of the last classes to study engineering without calculators. Sometime in my later college years HP introduced a scientific calculator (I want to call it the HP-45, but these days that seems to be an ink cartridge). It was expensive (~$400, if I recall – in 1970 dollars), so they weren't permitted on exams. But to hold one felt... incredible. Exponents, factorials, trig & log & ln, polar coords, in your pocket.
But that was a dozen years after "Feeling of Power".
My first college roommate, in 1975, got one of the high-end HP scientific calculators. I think it was near $800.He was the son of a sheik. When he told his father he needed to buy a calculator, his dad sent him a $10K check.
I signed a lot of petitions against the Shah that summer. I always wonder if I'm on an FBI list someplace. :)
The first calculator I ever saw (1967) was in the science library my freshman year in college. There was only one, and it was about the size of a audio receiver—only add, subtract, multiply, and divide, but it kept track of the decimal for you. I don't know what it cost, but we thought we had died and gone to heaven.There was always a line. Everyone waited patiently, but there was a strong ethic. You had to have all of your calculations already set up and ready to go. Those who were queued up would let you do a whole string of computations, but woe to anyone who tried to take a result and start to write down a new computation. Nope. Pencil work had to be done "off line."
I keep two old math professors locked up with various other minions in my Post-CME Bunker. When the lights go out I'll be ready to seize power and remake the world in my image. :}
E.D. wrote: "I keep two old math professors locked up with various other minions in my Post-CME Bunker. When the lights go out I'll be ready to seize power and remake the world in my image. :}"We old math professors might be able to do the computations without electronics, but we are better at building fairy castles of inferences than remaking the world. Maybe you should cultivate some retired engineers?
Bill wrote: "E.D. wrote: "I keep two old math professors locked up with various other minions in my Post-CME Bunker. When the lights go out I'll be ready to seize power and remake the world in my image. :}"We..."
The four engineers I had kept arguing about why each others designs would never work, which irritated the other minions to the point of murderous cannibalism.
I let everyone out for short exercise periods now. It seems to help curb their appetites. :}
what is wrong with this picture???